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Roster of Veterans at the 1913 Gettysburg Reunion

The 1913 Gettysburg reunion was the largest meeting of Civil War veterans after the war. Yet genealogists and other researchers have never had access to a list of those who attended.

I am very pleased to report that I have discovered what I believe are the original, unpublished registers that were signed by the veterans at the 1913 reunion. In most cases, the registers include the veteran’s name, company, regiment, home town, and tent number within the Great Encampment.

Sadly, as unofficial and voluntary log books, these registers identify only a small portion (about 6000) of the veterans who attended. However, additional research has led me to State financial records, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and other original records which, altogether, identify approximately 28,000 of the 54,000 veterans who attended the reunion. Additional records are actively being collected through a variety of State, Federal, and private sources.

So, while I may never be able to compile a complete list of the veterans who attended, I’m off to a great start and I expect the list to grow as additional sources are collected.

Bob Velke

[Note: A previous call for help transcribing these records went to more than 15,000 Gettysburg junkies on Facebook and met with a disappointing number of (ok, ZERO) volunteers. So I’ve withdrawn that proposal and intend to work on the project myself, perhaps eventually publishing a book on the subject. I’ll continue to post progress updates below, however, for those who may be interested.]

I now have full rosters of the veterans from 10 states (AZ, IN, MI, ND, OH, OR, PA, RI, UT, VT) plus DC, partial rosters from two more (NE, SC), and I know where to find full rosters for six more (KS, ME, NJ, VA, WA, WI). Together that represents about 35,000 veterans or 64% of the total. And I’m going to find the rest!

Today I found and added the official list of names of veterans who died in camp plus the names (not just counts) of the …

Boy Scouts and Scoutmasters
Band members
Members of the Pennsylvania Commission
Commission staff (stenographers, etc.)
Commission representatives from other states and territories
Members of the GAR Standing Committee
Members of the UCV Standing Committee
Commission guests housed at Pennsylvania College
Commission guests housed at Gettysburg College
Commission guests housed at the Lutheran Theological Sem.
Government officials
Regular Army officers in charge of the Great Camp
Hosts (College, Seminary, Park, etc. officials)
GAR Committee members who assigned tents
State Police on Duty
Accredited newspaper correspondents and photographers
Members of the Red Cross Executive Committee
Doctors, Nurses, and First Aid staff
PA State Department of Health officials
PA State Department of Health doctors, surgeons, nurses, etc.

…who attended the reunion.

While some of these names (e.g., Commission members, Distinguished Guests) are in the official published report, my source also has their city of residence and other information about most of them.

So far, the data for this project has been collected from more than 200 sources.